The Walking Dead Season 4 Mid-Season Finale "Too Far Gone" Review

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THIS EPISODE

            Now that we have gotten through the first half of season four, it is now time to review the mid-season finale. I was just start off when the episode starts. But first, I would like to point out that this is episode is the highest rated episode on IMDb of any episode of The Walking Dead. I am sure that eventually the rating will go down a bit, but as of now 4,372 people have rated it and it has a 9.6/10. The second highest rated episode of the series is the very first episode of the series, “Days Gone Bye” with 6,346 ratings and it has an 8.8/10. This episode is definitely not my favorite episode of this entire series, but I think that it is the second best episode this season, with the first being episode five “Internment”. I can hardly say that that episode is my favorite, because this episode was the most enjoyable, intense, and riveting episode of the season. I did have some flaws with it, though. I did, of course, think that it was a great episode, though.

The very first shot in this episode is The Governor giving a speech to his people creating lies about the people in the prison and saying that they need to take it over, no one will get hurt, and they will get the prison in pretty good shape. I was really anticipating the attack on the prison and I was started to get pumped. I was really enjoying this episode and I liked that it showed what transpired when The Governor witnessed Michonne and Hershel through a flashback-like take while The Governor was speaking. Then, The Governor visits his prisoners and we have some really good dialogue here. Hershel calls The Governor “Governor” and The Governor says “Don’t call me that anymore”. Hershel (and us) see that The Governor really has truly changed. Then Michonne says that she will kill The Governor. After that, when The Governor is leaving, Hershel says, “If you know what it’s like to have a daughter then how could you kill someone else’s?” and The Governor replies, “Because they’re not mine.” That is a straight-up classic Governor line that only David Morrissey as The Governor can say. That was an awesome line. Shortly after this scene, The Governor kisses his replacement daughter goodbye and it switches to a scene at the prison.

At the prison, Daryl is yelling at Rick for sending Carol away without his consent. That reminded me that four episodes ago Rick did send Carl away and he is just now getting to talk to Daryl about it. I was also surprised at how mad Daryl was about this. It added depth and character to this mostly action episode. They then go to tell Tyreese, by Tyreese says that what they have to say can wait and shows them a dissected rat. That is a very interesting and slightly prematurely intense storyline that I thought the show should definitely explore further in the future, but I do not know if the show will be able to do that because of the events of this episode. The rats are how the infection started and I think it is the little girls that are doing this. Anyway, right after this The Governor fires the tank at a tower, drawing the prison’s attention. When everyone goes out to see what just happened, we see The Governor with his militia, ready to attack. The Governor calls for Rick saying that they need to talk. Rick immediately replies “I don’t make decisions anymore, we have a council.” At that time I thought “oh yeah” and realized the heat of the situation and how much pressure was being put on Rick. I started getting a big worried about the prison, and I should have been.

Next, The Governor reveals that he has Hershel and Michonne captive and Rick is forced to go down there. The Governor tells him that they have until nightfall to get out or they will immediately kill the prisoners and kill everyone in the prison. I was then incredibly worried about what Rick was going to have to do. Rick then tries to convince him to bring his people to stay there and they could share the prison. The Governor then gets very upset and puts Michonne’s sword up to Hershel’s neck, so Rick decides to attempt to council The Governor out of it. When The Governor put the sword to Hershel’s next, I thought, Really, they are going to try to trick us into thinking that? I know Hershel is going to live. They should not threaten a main character like that. After Rick councils The Governor to the point where he takes the sword off the Hershel’s neck, I thought, Really, now the cheesy “slow move off of threatening the prison” thing? But then it shows just a shot of Hershel’s head and I thought Wait, he is about to get killed. Then The Governor whispers “Liar…” and begins cutting Hershel’s head off. While this was happening, the people up near the prison building had gotten guns ready, and when Rick fires that shot at The Governor, the war starts, and it is awesome. This scene was very hard to watch and very sad. It was a pivotal and great scene for the show.

The show then cuts to a scene in which we see The Governor’s girlfriend (Lilly) and new daughter back at their camp. The daughter is digging in mud and Lilly is worrying about walkers getting through water. Then, the daughter pulls up a sign that someone was buried under that is now a walker. The walker comes up and the daughter somehow does not hear it. The walker grabs hold of the daughter and I immediately thought, Really? They are doing the whole “walker has you but will not bite you” thing from the last ep-WOW! They are pushing it!! I was very surprised that the walker actually bit into her and was glad that the show finally let a walker win, even though it did the silly “weak walker” thing. Lilly then grabs her daughter and shoots the walker. It then switches to an all-out warfare scene in the prison.

This is my second favorite action scene of the entire series of The Walking Dead. It comes in second to the final battle scene at the end of episode ten of season three “Home”. Anyway, this action scene is awesome and riveting, and even though one of my flaws is the unlimited ammo that is not my biggest flaw with the episode. My biggest flaw with this episode is that The Governor promised then the prison with no one getting hurt, and when he says “destroy everything” all of his militia say “okay, let us destroy our new home you promised us while killing many people when you said no one would get hurt” and not even in a sarcastic way. Michonne is on the ground rolling around and no one decides to shoot her. That is another flaw with this episode. After The Governor finishes cutting Hershel’s head off, Lilly brings him his dead new daughter and he immediately shoots her in the head which made me say out loud “That guy is cold!” The Governor and his crew then knock the fences down and immediately enter the prison area and for some reason they decided not to shoot Rick even though he went behind the bus and they know where he is. Anyway, Rick then comes out and gets in a very awesome fist fight with The Governor. While all of this is happening, the battle is still going on and it is still awesome and riveting.

As the battle continues, Daryl almost dies, but then he kills the walker that came up behind him and destroyed the tank. Tyreese’s life is also in jeopardy and he is stupidly saved by the bad-acting young girls who have no training in how to shoot a gun. Then, the battle is over and the prison has one. Some of them got off on the bus and some did not. Then we see that The Governor is about to kill Rick, but then Michonne saves the day. Rick got a bullet in his leg and some punches in, and Michonne got to stick her sword through his back. The Governor is finally about to die and it is still awesome. The others have already fled, then Rick finds Carl and they look for Judith. We then see that Judith’s car seat has blood in it. Even though Judith is not as big a character as Hershel, that was still intense and sad. Then, as The Governor is about to be eaten by walkers, Lilly comes up and gets the final bullet in his head, finishing him off. Everyone has gone their separate ways and Rick and Carl and are together. This episode ends with a huge bang and this is a great ending to the first half of the season. I will rate this episode, but I will also rate the first half of this season.

            I give this episode an A- and a 9.1/10.
            I give the first half of this season an A- and an 8.7/10. It thought that it was great and I did not think one episode was anything below really good.